Step one is I set my camera to create a new folder every day. Then once I transfer to the hard drive I keep the folder auto date stamp but include a note as to what is in it.
I have found I do return and use new skills with old photos so tend to keep the RAW photos unless out of focus or something.
I have some what I consider stock images with good sky etc. which I will use with other images.
But much depends on the software you use. I am told light room is about the best to organise pictures but it does not have many of the features found with Photoshop CS4 so I use Bridge to organise my photos.
As you say viewing is also a problem so I tend to produce AV's to view pictures and Pictures2exe seems to be best. However since I only have the evaluation copy I have also looked at Slide Show Creator which is easier to use and does not write produced with evaluation copy of Pictures2exe on the slide show.
Not sure as to music to go with the pictures. Clearly if you want to pass on the AV then copy write free music is needed but for home use then I will use any music that's on my PC.
I have been surprised when going to lectures to hear the best photographers say how few photos they take. A land scape photographer may wait 5 hours until the light is just right before making just one exposure and may take 1/2 an hour setting up the camera.
I was invited to watch some tree felling and I did take around 40 images of that as I was uncertain as to when the tree would fall. Most were after deleted.
The big debate is do you do corrections before or after exposure? The purist will spend a lot of time attaching filters to the lens so the single image is spot on. I however will bracket my shots not only for exposure but also focus then using layers and masks with apply combine them together. Although my camera takes a picture at around 10M by time one has combined the images together 100M is not unusual and one has to consider is there really any point when my HDTV needs approx 1M for maximum resolution.
At the moment I have the RAW images but I wonder if there is any point with most of the run of the mill images.
This
example of my AV's shows how I collect my photos of any shoot together. There will likely be specials in every shoot this
for example took some time to develop to be able to obtain the depth of field so I will give it a higher star rating in Bridge. Also using the contact sheet allows one to see far quicker what is in the folder
as you can see that lets me see a good range.